Plainlist
The goal you set
an hour ago,
still on screen.
I have ADHD. I'd open a shiny task app, set a plan, and twenty minutes later I was three tabs deep with no idea what I was supposed to be doing. So I built the opposite: one plain-text file, the goal kept in sight, and a Focus mode that shows only the next action.
Free trial · no account · pay once · macOS 12+
Mac-only today, with Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon.
# Goal for today (kept in sight) 🎯 ship the onboarding email # Next action — nothing else shown - write the welcome subject line @me now # Later, folded away until you finish - draft body copy - add the download link
Plainlist keeps your goal in view so a distractible brain doesn’t lose the thread — the goal rides along the Plan view with the tasks that move it. You mark an outcome with 🎯 and an optional timeframe (@span), then nest the tasks that move it underneath. The goal doesn’t live in a separate “goals” tab you’ll forget to open — it’s part of the same file as your day, so it stays visible while you plan. When the day gets loud, you can still see what the work is pointing at. That’s the feature, and it exists because the alternative — setting a plan and losing it twenty minutes later — was the problem I was trying to solve.
Why I built this
Every productivity app became one more thing to babysit.
Feature-heavy apps add setup and maintenance — more things to manage — which is exactly what an ADHD brain doesn’t need. The pattern is familiar: download an app, configure projects and tags and recurring rules, build a system, and then spend energy maintaining the system instead of doing the work. Every notification, badge, and gamified streak is another thing competing for attention.
Plainlist is the opposite: a text file. No setup to maintain, no configuration to babysit, no badge to clear. You type a line, indent for a subtask, add @est or /p1 inline, and the file is the system. There’s nothing left to manage except the work itself.
A day in the file
How a distractible Tuesday actually goes.
A real ADHD-friendly Tuesday uses Plan to shape the day, Focus to see only today, and the Done log to prove something shipped. Same file all day — you add a couple of tags in the morning, the rest is just typing.
09:10 · Brain-dump & pick one goal
Get it out of your head first.
The morning starts as noise: six things half-remembered, two of them urgent. I dump all of it into the file as plain lines, then do the one decision that saves the day — mark a single outcome with 🎯 and an optional @span. That's the thing today is about. Everything else is negotiable.
Three tasks get a @start time so the morning has a shape instead of a pile.
🎯 get the release notes out the door Work: - write release notes @me 09:30 - reply to the two urgent emails 11:00 - idea: try a shorter changelog format Admin: - book the dentist - pay the invoice @due(Tue)
09:30 · Switch to Focus and the noise disappears
One task on screen. The goal above it.
This is the part that fixes my brain's failure mode. In Focus the whole list collapses to the next action only, with the 🎯 goal pinned above it. There's no wall of undone items to freeze on — just the single thing to start, and a visible reminder of why. When it's done I mark it, and the next one appears. Nothing to decide, nothing to scroll.
🎯 get the release notes out the door ▸ write release notes @me # two more waiting, hidden until this is done
10:40 · A thought hijacks you mid-task
Capture it without breaking the thread.
Mid-sentence I remember I never renewed the domain. Old me would open a browser “quickly” and lose forty minutes. Instead Quick Capture adds the thought to your file without opening the full app — one global shortcut, type the line, it lands in the right place, and I'm back on the release notes before the distraction takes hold.
# one shortcut, one line, then back to work > renew the domain @due(Fri) saved to Admin — full app never opened
17:00 · See what you actually shipped
Proof the scattered day still moved.
ADHD days often feel like nothing happened even when they didn't. The Done view collects what you finished, grouped by day, so on a chaotic Tuesday there's concrete evidence you moved things forward. On the bad days that's not a nice-to-have — it's the difference between “I'm useless” and “oh, I did five things.”
# Tuesday - write release notes - reply to urgent emails - renew the domain - clear inbox to zero - stand-up notes
Honest cons
Who this isn’t for.
If you need mobile apps, heavy collaboration, or a built-in pomodoro timer, Plainlist isn’t the right tool today — and that’s fine.
Honest boundaries
Mac-only right now
Plainlist is Mac-only today — Windows, iOS, and Android are planned, but if your day runs on a phone, it’s not ready for you yet.
No team features
It’s a personal planner — no shared lists, no comments, no assignments.
No timers or focus music
Plainlist deliberately doesn’t bundle timers or focus music. If a pomodoro timer is the core of your system, apps like TickTick bundle that better.
No push reminders
No notifications, no Apple Watch alerts. If time-blind alarms keep you on track, a system with real reminders will serve you better.
Plain text means typing
If editing an indented text outline sounds tiring rather than calming, a visual checkbox app will fit your brain better.